First of all, the guy looks exhausted. He looks like a he has had the crap beat out of him. He’s got that thousand yard stare going on like when you’re pulling all-nighters to cram for finals. But above all else, he seems relieved to be on the way out which is a shame because I want a President that wants to scratch and claw and fight to keep that job. They practically had to put the Clinton’s out on the sidewalk like the cat at the end of the Flintstones.

But I noticed something else in our President. Something I haven’t seen in any of his press conferences or state of the union addresses. Something so profound and so out of the ordinary that it should been obvious as soon as you heard it.

Humility

At about the 4:25 mark Charlie Gibson asks the President what he was most ill prepared for and President Bush responded “war.” Now the sarcastic me would be having a field day right about now, but I give him a lot of credit. It seemed like it was a relief for him to be able to say that out loud. Like he wanted to go running into the Rose Garden screaming at the top of his lungs that he knows he screwed up and that he was sorry.

Now the final chapter has yet to be written on 43, and I for one will have plenty of fun with this guy for years to come. But in this post on this day I am going to just say this; I have no idea what it is like to spend one minute as the Commander-in-chief. I have no idea what it is like to be woken up in the middle of the night because some rouge faction has decided to take American hostages in some God forsaken place half way around the world. And no I don’t know all the joys the presidency brings either.

But I do know this; getting elected President of the United States is the easy part, running a democracy effectively is entirely another story. Thanks for trying Mr. President. That’s all anyone can ever ask!

Well Mr. President-elect, you have yourself a Secretary of State. You have elevated the most powerful woman in politics (don’t give me Sarah Palin please) to a position of fantastic power. You have also negated any attempt by Mrs. Clinton of running against you in 2012. That is a tactical coup that even Karl Rove would applaud because you know full well the Hillary and Bill show was going to hit the streets like circus carnies before you even plugged in your Blackberry.

Hillary is a smart choice, but is she the right choice?

Now that the pomp and circumstance is out of the way I have to say that I don’t like the pick. I understand Mrs. Clinton has substantial grey matter going on upstairs but I am not sure that that is what this job requires. Some of the smartest people I know are functional illiterates when it comes to social settings, not to mention the skill sets required to engage in international diplomatic negotiations with dictators and despots.

Forget the fact that she is a woman, and if anyone reading these words doesn’t think that being one is a disadvantage in certain circles than you are kidding yourselves. No, I am more concerned with the job calling for the tact and decorum of someone who hasn’t gotten everything they have every wanted when it comes to being a political operative.

Let’s face it, the Clintons don’t like to lose and while that is all well and good when fighting for a bill or trying to win an election, it’s not going to go over so well with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or   Vladimir Putin.

Mea culpa, Mea culpa

Am I wrong in my analysis? Does Hillary have the chops to do the job of a 21st century Secretary of State? Time will tell, but I bet Obama won’t hesitate for a second to pull the plug if things don’t go the way he expects.

It was a fairly depressing weekend if you followed the news. A coordinated terrorist attack in Mumbai captured the majority of the headlines with 170 innocent people murdered over someone else’s war. If it was just the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians in Mumbai that we had to live with during what was supposed to be a time of giving thanks we could consider ourselves morbidly lucky. But the Mumbai attacks were just the headline grabber in what seemed to be an endless stream of horrible news. Here are some of the headlines over the last few days:

• Pakistan-Based Group Accused in Mumbai Attacks Flourishing Despite Ban
• In Zimbabwe, a Land Of Broken Trust
• U.N. to Deploy 3,100 More Peacekeepers in Congo
• ICC Warrants Sought for 3 Sudanese Rebel Chiefs
• Bombing At Mosque In Iraq
• Militants could start regional war, says Zardari
• Journalists caught in crackdown by Myanmar junta
• 9 headless bodies found in Mexican border city
• Hamas prevents Muslim pilgrims from leaving Gaza
• Death toll in Nigeria rises, army restores calm
• Thai police order airport protesters to disperse

Doesn’t make much for giving thanks does it? And it could have been worse given that New York City was under heightened security due to possible terrorist attacks on the subway system. All this pain and suffering and yet I was always left to understand that lifting countries out of the primordial ooze and having them become full-fledged members of society was supposed to prevent the headlines you just read. That was the promise anyway. Things like iPods and candy are supposed to be what children yearn for; instead, most in these countries end up fighting in wars they don’t understand, dying of AIDS, or starving to death while the world looks on.

Hasn’t this gone on long enough?

We fought the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge in Vietnam and Cambodia while bumbling our way through failed invasions and assassinations of Castro in Cuba and we did it in the name of stopping the spread of Communism, but all that got us was one dead President and a ten year war we couldn’t win. Today the threat of Communism has been replaced by terrorism and anyone wearing a scarf over their face is a suspect.

Why isn’t this working?

Why is Africa falling deeper into the abyss year after year? $15-$20 billion dollars a year in aid and yet Africa gets worse. Genocide, AIDS, and starvation have ravished the continent with no end in site.

The Middle East hates everything the West stands for. The cozy relationship the U.S. maintains with Israel and the ‘democracy at all cost’ doctrine are two very good reasons why this part of the world has become such a hot spot. If history has shown us anything it’s that you don’t get involved in someone’s Holy War because there is no exit strategy. And yet the U.S. thinks it can expand its sphere of influence over anyone it pleases simply because we write a check or provide humanitarian relief. Democracy has to start from the inside and work its way out.

Meanwhile the U.S. barely keeps Pakistan and India from lobbing ICBM’s at each other while countries like Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos flourish in the drug and slave trades.  China has bought the United States on the cheap while they continue to pollute the world with waste produced from the manufacture of contaminated toys for U.S. consumption. All the while Russia plays Monopoly with former satellite states at the cost of its own economy and position on the world stage.

All in all it seems to be a pretty sad state of affairs and I for one don’t have a solution. Where do you start putting things back together? I guess you can’t answer that until you figure out where it all went wrong in the first place. In the meantime, all you can hope and pray for is that the world doesn’t come crashing through your door like it did to the people you will see during tomorrow’s evening news.

About the photo:

It is heart wrenching I know. I cried when I saw it for the first time about ten years ago. Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer for the photo which was shot during the 1994 Sudanese famine. The child was on the way to a United Nations food camp about a mile away. No one knows what happened to the child but Kevin came under fire after it was revealed that he did nothing to help after the picture was taken. Kevin subsequently committed suicide three months later.

Not so long ago, a relatively young, newly elected president of Russia was presented with a proposal to amend the nation’s constitution and extend the four-year term of the presidency.

His response was unequivocal. “The terms of presidential authority will not be changed under the current president,” Vladimir Putin said in 2001, his second year in office, arguing that amendments to the constitution “dictated by political considerations” were dangerous. “Even in the most difficult times and times of crisis,” he said, “those in power did not succumb to the temptation to correct the constitution for themselves. In the end, this was for the good.” Putin repeated the pledge on the eve of his second term, saying the constitution should be left “untouched.”

Now, months after leaving office and becoming prime minister, Putin is helping another relatively young, newly elected Russian president do exactly what he promised never to do himself — rewrite the constitution to extend the presidential term. The abrupt reversal has sparked speculation in Moscow about whether Putin is preparing to take back his old job as president, and why. Story

To my Russian friends: This is not how a democracy is supposed to be executed. You are supposed to put a constitution in place and live with your choices. Not bastardize your most important document to make it fit your agenda. Just to give you an idea what I mean, we keep ours under twelve inches of glass with armed guards around it. Seems like you guys have yours out on a drafting table and it’s written in pencil.

Looking in from the outside, it doesn’t appear as if you are serious about this whole democracy thing. Can you not find another leader with the same attributes as Putin or is it that he in particular is that strong of a presence both at home and on the world stage that you would allow this type of behavior?

Because honestly, even with your military might the stronghold your country currently enjoys on oil and gas distribution throughout Europe, Russia is still looked upon politically as something of a farce by the West. Foreign investment is beginning to take another look at their exposure in a country that could just as easily revert back to communism while it continues to wrangle with implementing a full blown democracy.

Not to mention the subtle and not so subtle attempts to roll-up former satellite countries back into Russian control makes the rest of us even more skittish. Then there’s Russia’s rants toward the United States which included a speech just hours after Barack Obama was elected president by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who threatened to deploy short-range, high-precision missiles in Kaliningrad which happens to be positioned in a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea located between Poland and Lithuania, two NATO allies - if the Obama administration proceeded with the missile shield.

While I remember distinctly watching Boris Yeltsin jumping up and down on a tank during the failed coup in 1991 I can’t help but replay the words be careful what you wish for because you just may get it in my head. Democracy isn’t free, it isn’t easy, and it should be taken seriously.

As the Obama team prepares to take on the shit sandwich handed to them by the most inept President of our time, there seems to be a bit of eye rolling and finger pointing from the peanut gallery in Washington regarding his picks for top posts in the new White House.

President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday defended his decision to choose veterans of the Clinton administration for positions in the West Wing, in his cabinet and across the administration, saying Americans would be rightly “troubled” if he overlooked experience merely to create the perception of change.

Mr. Obama, who created his presidential campaign around a message of bringing a fresh outlook to the problems of Washington, said he would be careless if he didn’t enlist people who had counseled former presidents. He grew animated as he tried to brush aside suggestions “that there’s a recycling of people who were in the Clinton administration.”

What I think people fail to remember is that we lived pretty good during the Clinton years. Now, many would have you believe that Reagan policies implemented years before Clinton ever dreamed of chasing Monica Lewinsky around the Oval would have as much to do with Clinton’s economy as he did. And there may very well be some truth to that, but as we have seen with Bush 43 it doesn’t take long to ruin a country, so I have to give most of the credit to Clinton. But there’s something else that makes the Obama picks worthwhile, and it might even be the very reason that everyone is complaining about.

Failure!

If I were elected President and wanted to implement change, I would absolutely bring on people that have made their bones in previous administrations by failing. Not in the Peter Principle kind of way, but by knowing through experience that sometimes the only winning move is not to play. That kind of experience can’t be taught, it can only be learned and I would much rather have had school in session during someone else’s presidency.

Obama is a smart guy and he knows what he is doing. He is going to give the Clintons enough rope to hang each other, not him. As far as the rest of the team, the President-elect has yet to come across as the guy that couldn’t make up his mind. If anyone on his team doesn’t serve at the pleasure of this President then they will have shorter careers than that Pope that got poisoned!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What a fantastic time of year! The leaves are turning and the cool crisp air reminds you that winter is just around the corner and that the holiday season is upon us. In fact, a few of our local radio stations have been playing Christmas music for three weeks already!

In the spirit of giving, I want this post to be a conversation, in other words, none of me going on and on about something that pissed me off, but rather a pure Thanksgiving Day salute. Here’s what I want to do. I want all of you that read me to leave a comment for anything you are thankful for. It doesn’t have to be a long diatribe, it could even one word but I want everyone to participate! Even if you live in another country there should be something you are thankful for so let us know about it! You just don’t get any turkey!

It can be personal, political, or whatever you feel like saying but let’s get some real conversation going here people! Don’t be shy, I know how many of you are out there so let’s go!

Here is mine:

• I am thankful for my family and while I am sure there will be some spirited debate around the turkey table later, I love them all
• I am specifically happy for my daughter, who took five long years to get here. She consumes me
• I am thankful that my wife’s test was negative yesterday and I love her very much
• I am thankful to still have my parents to enjoy this Thanksgiving Day festivus!
• I am thankful to be healthy
• I am thankful we are coming to the end of the reign of terror that is George Bush
• I am thankful to be able to write this blog!
• I am thankful that you guys read it!
• I am thankful to live in the country that I do!
• I am just thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

John O. Brennan, a C.I.A. veteran who many considered would be the next director of the agency withdrew his name on Tuesday from consideration for a top job in the Obama presidency amidst fears he was closely associated to controversial C.I.A. programs approved by President Bush.

In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, Mr. Brennan said he didn’t want these concerns to be a “distraction” for the incoming administration. At the same time, he vigorously defended his C.I.A. record and called himself a “strong opponent” of the brutal interrogation techniques the agency has employed in recent years, including water boarding.

Torture-Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him information or a confession.

Seems so nice and neat doesn’t it? Reading the definition doesn’t come anywhere near describing the pain and suffering felt by the unfortunate soul who happens to be tethered to a box spring stripped of its padding so that the metal skeleton provides for a better flow of electricity from the twelve volt car battery that is attached by jumper cables nearby does it?

These are the types of things that don’t get talked about at inauguration dinners but they are real, and they happen every day. And if you think the U.S. doesn’t participate either actively or passively in the practice of torture, you are just kidding yourself.

But torture serves a purpose

Here is where I differ from my liberal brethren. Torture in and of itself is horrible but necessary, but if you think for a second that additional terrorist attacks here in the United States haven’t been thwarted because someone was water boarded in some other part of the world then you are just dreaming while awake.

But I am willing to learn

Most liberals oppose torture and I am willing to drink the Kool-Aid too, but you have to show me how drawing a line from someone being tortured to preventing my children from being blown up while on their way to school isn’t a good thing. Please, I am willing to listen!

But wait, before you go offering up the even one life is too many to lose routine, I say this: there isn’t a mother, husband, son or daughter that wouldn’t trade the information gained through torture to bring back a loved one from 9/11, and if there is, God bless them because there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do to someone to protect my family.

First it was the banks, and then it was the mortgage companies followed up by big auto. Then back to the banks again. Now home builders are applying pressure in Washington through their lobby for a $250 billion stimulus package of their own to save their industry from what I am sure they would classify as total annihilation.

But unlike the auto manufacturers, the home builders came prepared, at least with a slogan. They are calling their plan the “Fix Housing First” plan. The way home builders see it, a recovery in housing is what is needed in order to jump start the economy. The plan would provide new home buyers a tax credit of 10% of the home’s value, capping it at $22,000 along with federally subsidized mortgage programs. Problem is it isn’t housing.

It’s the Jobs Stupid!

We are way past the housing market saving this economy. Unemployment is shooting through the roof while companies try and figure out how to survive to fight another day. Ask yourself personally what it is that worries you more, housing or your job?

Citigroup just got bailed out over the weekend to the tune of $326 billion, so the home builders figured why not. Problem is, what about the massive inventory of existing homes? What about all the homes in foreclosure? Don’t we need to get those sold off before we put another shovel into the ground?

A record 1.2 million homes were in foreclosure during the second quarter of 2008. That represents 2.8% of all outstanding loans, up from 1.4% of all loans during the same period a year ago according to a report released in September by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). And to make matters worse, another 490,000 of the 45 million home mortgages serviced by MBA members began new foreclosure proceedings in the same month. It just doesn’t seem prudent to provide a stimulus package to only half of the housing market.

But that isn’t going to stop them from asking. But maybe I just created the argument for the National Association of Realtors to pitch Washington for an existing homes stimulus package!

Arabs, particularly Palestinians, are nervous that Obama seems prepared to give the job of top diplomat to a senator from New York who has spent eight years cultivating her pro-Israel constituency and would continue, they think, a lack of U.S. evenhandedness in refereeing the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Because of what they regard as her bellicose rhetoric toward Iran and her initial support for the Iraq war, some see her selection as a sign that Obama intends to conduct a more hawkish foreign policy than he suggested during the campaign.

Let’s face it people, the United States serves many masters. We are beholden to so many countries for so many reasons that the mere volume of diplomatic stratagem required to appease everyone would stop a team of oxen. Can we spend this century digging ourselves out of the quagmires we entangled ourselves in during the last?

President Obama on Saturday offered an outline of his economic recovery plan to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011, saying American workers will rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges, modernize its schools and create more sources of alternative energy.

Details of the plan are still being worked out by his economic team, Obama said, but he hopes to sign the two-year, nationwide plan shortly after taking office January 20. Obama noted he will need support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass such a plan, and said he welcomes suggestions from both sides of the aisle.

Note to Republicans: This is exactly what you guys sounded like when you took office eight years ago. Then September 11th happened and you all lost your minds. Funny thing is, I voted for 43, so I am part of the very hypocrisy that I mock today.

I don’t know what it’s like having your president assassinated. I wasn’t even a thought 45 years ago. I can only imagine the feeling that must have blanketed the country at the time. When you talk to people today there are only a few dates they can remember as if they were still there; their wedding day, the birth of their first child, the tragedy of 9/11, and if they are old enough, the assassination of JFK.

But we are at the dawn of a new day, a new leader shrouded in the cloak of both JFK and Martin Luther King. A man who learned the lessons only a half white, half black person could learn in 1960’s and 70’s America. All things considered, the Presidency is more about the office, not a person, and not many men have been able to live up to the standard of the President of these United States. Hopefully, I will get to see one this time around.

Note: The video may take a second or two to load!

What you are about to see is as disturbing as it is disgraceful. During last week’s G20 summit President Bush walks through a line of world leaders and no one shakes his hand, not one person. What is not clear is if they are ignoring the President or if he is ignoring them but either way as an American it is tough to watch.

Why?

Because these leaders, most of which rely on the United States for something; food, money, or military support don’t have the respect to shake the hand of the President of the United States if not for the man, then the office. Isn’t the office due the respect even if the person currently manning the post doesn’t?

If it is President Bush who refused to shake hands, then it is just another in a long list of guffaws from a leader that has spent his presidency making the United States look like buffoons.

Well, neither option is the case. Bush had already greeted each head of state prior to the video but this is how it was portrayed on CNN by Rick Sanchez.

I want you to look at this video, all right. It seems almost sad. Look at this. This is the president of the United States walking out on stage to take a picture with world leaders invited to the G20 summit over the weekend. Look at him. And he seems like the most unpopular kid in high school that nobody liked — you know, the one with the cooties?

I know some of you out there were wishing it was true!

So the whole world is pissed at the auto execs for flying private jets to Washington for hearings. Me personally, I have been on the fence with it for the last few days…one day I am as angry at them as the rest of you, the next day I can see full well why anyone in that position would use these accommodations.

But let’s do a little math shall we? Let’s assume that Rick Wagoner or Bob Nardelli aren’t traveling alone. I mean do you think Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM travels by himself? Hell no! So how many people will you be traveling with today Mr. Wagoner? Well, you imagine his executive secretary is a no brainer right? Then you have a VP or two from finance just in case they need to crunch some numbers during the hearing, and each of them bring their secretaries.

Body count so far: 6

Then you know full well Rick isn’t leaving town without being all lawyered up. So he brings both personal and corporate attorneys. Let’s say its five lawyers total and two support staff.

Final total: 13

Flying the friendly skies-If our villain did opt to fly commercial, he certainly isn’t doing it on a discount airline like Southwest, so it’s American or US Airways. And let’s also assume the lackeys aren’t flying first class with their boss either. So we have the following breakdown:

First class round trip from Detroit to Washington on less than 14 days advanced booking for eight executives and 1 executive secretary. Cost: $29043

Coach for round trip from Detroit to Washington for 2 support staff. Cost: $958

Grand Total=$30,001!

Cost for 1 GulfStream G550 with crew and seating capacity for 15: $18,974

Taxpayer savings: $11027!

So, there you have it. Rick and his band of merry men were looking out for your tax dollars! He took a private jet with support staff that cost over $10,000 less than what it would cost to fly commercial! You should all be ashamed of yourselves for giving this hard working titan of industry a hard time! Shame on you!

I read a fantastic article in the Washington Post by Kathleen Parker titled “Giving Up on God.” In it, Mrs. Parker explains in great comedic detail how the Republicans strayed way too far to their rights and have come away from this election looking closed minded and stodgy compared to the melting pot of young voters who are the new face of politics.

She makes the point that God in the form of politics should once again be tucked neatly away from the light of day. That God has no place being in the same sentence as politics. Hot button issues like abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage should be debated on without the God factor since each of us holds God in our own way.

I couldn’t agree with her more. I realize God holds a high place in many homes across the country and many people live their lives through the good book. Countless wars have been fought and brother has killed brother all in the name of God. But in that same name of God don’t I get to decide for myself what I think is right or wrong?

Don’t I help my brother regardless of his sexual orientation? Shouldn’t I help my sister even though she’s had an abortion or should I just damn the both to Hell? Why should I cast my religious shadow onto someone else since it’s not in the name of God anyway, but in the name of a political affiliation?

Now, I don’t remember when the Republicans became God’s team but the Dems are going to play fast and loose for the next four years; stem cell research, gay marriage and other social reforms are all going to be front and center as spirited debate brews in this country the likes of which we have not seen in a long time. I for one am looking forward to it!

Either President-elect Obama knows exactly what he is doing, or he is the 12th man on the 11 man team. His dance card is starting to fill with all sorts of names with either checkered pasts (Eric Holder) or with Husbands with checkered pasts (Hillary).

Either way he is amassing a team of serious heavyweights in the Democratic Party and there seems to be some concern inside the Obama camp that there may just be a little too much Clinton running around the White House. I am not even sure Hillary is the right person for the State job to begin with. First of all, half of Eastern Europe knows she is full of shit with the gunshots on the tarmac hallucination during the campaign.

Secondly, you always, and I mean always have to worry where Bill is putting his dick. You know he has been getting more ass than a public toilet while campaigning and trying to walk back all the skanks he has banged since leaving the White House could take us right up to inauguration day.

But if all goes well, the bullet dodging mama and her pimp will be coronated once again. This time though, they will both be serving at the pleasure of the President, and I don’t mean a cute little name for Bill’s junk. Man I hope he doesn’t get anything on the furniture!

The heads of the Big 3 were in Washington yesterday to try and save their asses so they can live to make shitty cars another day. One thing stood out above all during the hearings, THEY WEREN”T ON FUCKING TELEVISION! Now, I could be wrong, and if I am please correct me. But I looked on C-SPAN, I checked CNN, CNBC, FOX, MSNBC and my shitty little local access channel that sometimes carries this kind of crap and not a sign of Rick or Bob or the other guy that ran Ford into Lake Michigan anywhere.

NOTHING!

Couple things, why isn’t there any transparency to these hearings? It’s my fucking money that’s about to get flushed down the crapper just to give these guys enough breathing room so they don’t flat line before Christmas. But maybe they didn’t televise the proceedings so we didn’t have to hear shit like this:

That a “$25 billion bailout of the industry is necessary to prevent catastrophic effects on the economy.”

Or

“The societal costs would be catastrophic if the domestic industry were allowed to fail,” “it would mean three million jobs lost within the first year.”

You know something fellas; these scare tactics would have had more of an impact if we hadn’t already shit the money bed with Wall Street two months ago. The American people are picking their fucking teeth with bones left over from the rotting, stinking, carcasses left behind in New York, so do you think we give a fuck about another couple million people on unemployment? Just throw them on the friggin’ pile.

You really do have to ask yourselves what chance of survival you have when the Republicans don’t want to help you and instead, the Dems want to save your asses. I mean it might as well be the fucking French! Anyway good luck, because if any of you get sucked up by Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn he will see to it that you are making lug nuts at some Siberian outpost before Santa drops his fat ass down your chimney.  Dress warm fuckers!

UPDATE:

So they are on CNN.com this morning giving opening speeches and they couldn’t sound more pathetic. BUT, they will get their money and here is why, Bob Nardelli, CEO of Chrysler put it in a nutshell; “We are not sure we will come out of bankruptcy.” Pretty powerful!

File under ‘when it rains it pours.’ With no one left to blame, the Republicans h